Some businesses choose to go it alone, valuing independence above all else. Others, like ITCloud.ca, leverage collaborations to extend their reach. Autonomy has its advantages, but it’s strategic connections with others in their ecosystem that continue to distinguish the small Quebec IT company as one of Canada’s top cloud service distributors.
“After a period of organic growth, we set out quite purposefully to establish business relationships that would drive growth, increase competitive advantage,” says David Latulippe, Vice President of Sales and Business Development for ITCloud.ca. “By harnessing complementary strengths, we have been able to give our channel partners the security and flexibility they need to improve their business outcomes.”
Guided by a desire to foster innovation and expand their line of products and services, ITCloud.ca looked for a value-aligned partner that would help them maximize the adoption of Office 365 solutions by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
“One of the main barriers to the adoption of new technologies is the difficulty in equipping employees with the skills they require,” says Latulippe. “Our strategy was a partnership with Mandarine Academy that enables us to offer accessible, affordable training through their Mooc Office 365 platform.”
George Naugle, at Corey’s Computing, in Winnipeg MB likens the training provided by ITCloud.ca to a breath of fresh air in the cloud services market. “Starting with a full orientation of their services, ITCloud.ca demonstrates a caring attitude through their sales and tech support staff backed up by their detailed and easy to use web portal. Adding new clients and products is a breeze with the portal and ensures I can make sales or get support on my schedule at any time of the day.”
With the growing incidence of cyber attacks, and skyrocketing recovery costs, ITCloud.ca looked to Bitdefender, a world leader in antivirus and anti-malware. “It pays to be prepared for the worst,” says Latulippe. “All companies struggle to recover from compromised data and downtime, but for SMBs, which comprise 98% of the Canadian economy, it may spell financial disaster.”
As the result of a collaboration with StorageCraft, a market-leader in disaster recovery, ITCloud.ca built a full-image Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) appliance. The first of its kind in Canada, Replica is designed for a network of MSPs and resell partners and ties in fully to StorageCraft’s API sets. Both the base images and subsequent backup images are stored off-site in Markham, Ontario at the secure Centurylink data centre.
Collaboration with StorageCraft also resulted in Office 365 Backup, an easy-to-use solution for the protection, management and recovery of Office 365 data.
“Because data is stored in industry-compliant Canadian data centres, it takes only seconds to restore deleted users and recover files and folders in their native formats, to their native location, and to the same or different owners,” explains Latulippe. “As an additional attraction, retention and storage are unlimited.
Earlier this year, ITCloud.ca entered into a transformative relationship with Microsoft as an official Cloud Distributor. One of only six Microsoft authorized 2-Tier distributors (formerly known as Indirect Providers) for indirect CSPs in Canada, and the only one to focus strictly on Canadian SMBs, ITCloud.ca offers a full range of bundled solutions, including Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Dynamics 365. The guiding principle is to help IT companies expand their customer base, catalyze sales, and promote Microsoft certifications and competencies.
“I never thought about offering Microsoft products like Office 365 to my SMB customers,” says Gino Paradis, president of Informidata, an IT services provider in Matane, Quebec. “I thought it would be too difficult to get certified and learn how to support the technology, but ITCloud.ca looks after all that for me. They make me look good so that my customers want to keep doing business with me.”
The Microsoft connection is also paying off for Sylvain Perusse, president of Infoteck in Shawinigan, Quebec. “It alleviates the burden on my administration department,” says Perusse. “Indeed, I don’t have to bill my clients, as ITCloud.ca does it for us, in my name. Their portal is very user-friendly and intuitive, and it allows me to manage all my customers.”
With the recent acquisition of Cloud-IT, an award-winning cloud technology company, ITCloud.ca reinforces its position as a Canadian leader and underscores a commitment to the SMB market. Channel partners will soon see a host of benefits, including a new ITCloud Academy that will give MSPs training and help them access a range of certifications related to cloud solutions.
“We have built our success on a foundation of collaborations and partnerships,” says Latulippe. “This is a logical next step.”